FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT FLOOD INSURANCE - PAGE 3

The county's application for federal funds to buy nine flood-prone properties might rest on the relatively small cost of a 2006 storm. The first time Laura Graber's house flooded, in 1999, she escaped by walking out of chest-high water. The second time, in 2006, the Smithfield resident had to be rescued by boat. "Am I going to get carried out next time?" Graber said. She's one of several Isle of Wight residents who hope the county receives federal funding to take their flood-prone properties off their hands.

KNOW PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE IN STORM NEWPORT NEWS Know your risk. Consult your local emergency management office or Red Crosschapter for information on preparedness in your area. Identify where you could go if you are told to evacuate. Choose several places - a friend's home in another town, a motel, a shelter. Recheck your supply of boards, tools, batteries and other equipment which you will need when a hurricane strikes your area. Pre-pack a home hurricane supplies kit with a three-day supply of water, nonperishable food, first aid kit, battery-operated radio and extra batteries and other essential items.

By David Macaulay, dmacaulay@dailypress.com 247-7838 | January 11, 2010

A proposal for Hampton to update a flood action plan, paving the way for lower flood insurance in affected areas, has been backed by the Planning Commission. The amendment to the hazard mitigation plan would also streamline applications for federal money to raise homes that are frequently flooded in the city. The proposals will come before Hampton City Council next month after the commission backed them following a public hearing on Thursday. The city is required to draw up and update the Peninsula Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000.

Reminder HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS. Purchasing flood insurance is another step to take well before a storm approaches. Homeowners' policies don't cover damage from flooding, so a separate insurance policy is essential if you live in an area that could be flooded. Flood insurance is available from any insurance agent and requires a 30-day waiting period before becoming effective. Source: Newport News Office of Emergency Management. By the numbers SAD FACT. Since 1600, 109 species and subspecies of birds have become extinct.

Forget about lining up insurance for your car, home, business or boat until the hurricane threat passes. Major insurers stopped underwriting new policies in Virginia when a hurricane watch took effect at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The restriction for Allstate covers "just about everything," said Allstate spokesman Matt Stegle. Added Sandy Wallace, an owner of the Budget Insurance agency in Grafton, which offer policies from about 40 companies: "We are pretty much at a standstill unless people only want auto liability insurance that the state requires."

Carol Berg knows families who are still struggling because they got wiped out by Hurricane Floyd last September. They lost nearly all of their possessions and had no insurance to cover the losses. "The first thing out of most of our client's mouths is, 'I never thought it could happen to me,' " said Berg, director of Disaster Services for the National Red Cross. "We're still working on getting them on their feet and now we're facing another hurricane season." If you could glance at a calendar and see exactly when the next hurricane will strike, it might make the storm easier to bear.

The federal government has contributed to the national increase in hurricane damage over the last 20 years by encouraging people to live in vulnerable areas, an urban affairs professor said Wednesday at the National Hurricane Conference. There's some truth in what the professor says, an official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency replied. But development and land use decisions are primarily local, and the federal government shouldn't solely bear the blame, the official said.

At Goodrich & Watson Insurers offices in Newport News, as at other local agencies, the notices from insurance companies barring new coverage started coming in over the weekend. That's bad news for the underinsured because it's too late for property owners to upgrade their policies. Local agents say most companies won't add coverage with a hurricane looming, and the coverage most people want to add -- flood insurance -- requires a 30-day waiting period. "Insurers guard against what's called adverse selection," said P.J. Crowley, vice president of the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute, a New York-based property and casualty insurance industry group.

More than 50 years ago, Jim and Bernice Henry built a house on a piece of land that backs up to Mason Creek in Seaford. At that time, no power lines brought electricity to their property, so Jim dug out the crawlspace himself and cut his wood by hand. He did everything except lay the bricks. About 20 years ago, their insurance agent told them they didn't need flood insurance, they said, because their property was too high to flood. During the infamous Ash Wednesday storm of 1962, for example, water flooded part of their yard but never entered their house on Dawson Drive.

Superintendent Jonathan Lewis proposes an $18.2 million budget for the 2004-05 school year, an increase of more than $1.3 million over the $17 million approved last year. The spending plan, which increases the taxpayers' share to nearly $8 million, would allow Poquoson schools to join surrounding districts in offering full-day kindergarten. Included in the budget is money for three full-time teacher positions, three full-time teacher assistants' jobs and a part-time teacher assistant position.